【作者】 程秀芳；

【导师】 周梅华；

【作者基本信息】 中国矿业大学 ， 管理科学与工程， 2011， 博士

【摘要】 口碑是消费者之间关于产品、服务、销售商特征等方面的非正式交流,口碑比厂商发布信息更具有可信性,对消费者产生更大影响力。网络环境下,口碑传播超越了熟人和朋友的小圈子,其影响范围和扩散速度是惊人的,甚至改变了消费者的消费习惯和生活方式,也为企业发展带来前所未有的机遇和挑战,因而网络环境下口碑传播成为业界和学术界关注的热点问题。本研究目的在于揭示以下三个问题。第一,传统的口碑传播是发生在家人、熟人和朋友之间的面对面交流,而虚拟社区口碑传播是以计算机为媒介的发生在匿名的消费者之间的交流,那么传统的口碑传播理论是否能够解释虚拟社区口碑传播行为?如果不能,如何在原有理论基础上调整创新?第二,网络口碑传播过程非常复杂,看起来是一幅杂乱模糊的场景,很难用清晰的图画勾勒出在口碑传播过程中发生影响的关键环节。第三,传统口碑传播过程中,意见领袖扮演着重要的角色,那么虚拟社区环境中是否也存在意见领袖呢?如果有,如何识别意见领袖?基于以上问题,本研究以消费类虚拟社区中口碑发送者和接收者为研究对象,综合运用传播学、心理学、计算机科学和消费者行为学研究工具,以社会交换理论,信任理论、归因理论为基础,从个体属性变量和关系变量两个方面研究了网络口碑对于消费者决策行为的影响。本研究共分为三个部分。首先,本研究在文献梳理和定性访谈的基础上构建了以信任为中介变量的网络口碑对消费者购买决策行为影响模型。其中自变量包括口碑发送者特征、网站特征以及口碑接收者特征,因变量是网络口碑影响力,网络口碑信任度是中介变量,包括认知信任和情感信任两个维度。本研究通过问卷调查收集数据,运用SPSS 17.0和Visual plus1.04对模型进行了实证研究。实证研究表明,口碑发送者专业性、同质性、口碑发送者与接收者之间的关系强度、网站可信性显著正向影响网络口碑对消费者行为的影响力,而这种影响是通过网络口碑信任的中介作用实现的。口碑接收者专业性不仅显著影响网络口碑效应,而且还对口碑发送者特征、网站可信性与网络口碑可信度之间的关系起调节作用。当口碑接收者专业性高时,他们倾向于以口碑发送者专业性作为建立信任的线索;而当口碑接收者专业性低时,他们倾向于把网站可信性作为建立信任的线索。此外,我们在研究网络口碑传播现象时不仅希望知道哪些因素影响网络口碑效应,我们更希望了解在虚拟社区中是谁在影响谁,也就是口碑传播的路径是什么?因此,本研究的第二部分运用社会网络分析法分析作为传播媒介的虚拟社区网络结构特征如何影响口碑传播效应。本研究首先通过文献梳理提出研究假设,然后采用Delphi语言设计虚拟社区数据抓取程序,选择三个典型的消费类虚拟社区为抓取对象,抓取网络口碑传播记录,为社会网络分析提供原始数据。研究采用Ucinet6.0和Netdraw为分析工具对虚拟社区口碑传播的互动关系进行可视化分析。通过对三个典型消费类虚拟社区口碑传播过程的分析得出以下结论。虚拟社区中口碑发送者和接收者之间的关系以弱关系为主。这种弱关系为主的互动关系形成的网络是个低密度、松散的、去中心化的网络。虚拟社区网络结构具有无标度网络特征,这意味着虚拟社区口碑传播过程中,大部分社区成员对于口碑传播没有影响力,而少数社区成员具有重要影响力,这些少数重要社区成员即是虚拟社区中的意见领袖。通过聚类分析,我们识别出虚拟社区中谁是意见领袖,并分析意见领袖在虚拟社区口碑传播中所起的作用。意见领袖在虚拟社区中处于中心位置,他们以其专业性、创新性、表现力和高的产品介入度,对其他社区成员产生影响。这也说明,和传统口碑传播相似,虚拟社区环境中意见领袖仍在发挥作用,而且从某种程度上来说,虚拟社区的影响力来自于意见领袖的影响力,意见领袖是虚拟社区的重要资产。基于研究的相关结论,本论文的第三部分为虚拟社区治理和企业网络口碑营销提出对策和建议。更多还原

【Abstract】 Word of mouth is informal communication among consumers about specific product or service, seller’s attributes and usage. It is considered that word of mouth is more credible than company-initiated information, and more influential in consumer decision making. With the popularity of internet, the size and range of word of mouth communication has been extended, and the influence of electronic word of mouth (Referred to as eWOM) even changes the life style of consumers and it has brought unprecedented opportunities and challenges for corporate marketing activity. Therefore, electronic word of communication has received extensive attention from both academics and practitioners for decades.Through the analysis of the research background, we found three research questions. Firstly, the traditional word of mouth is face to face communication among family, acquaintances and friends, while eWOM is based on computer-mediated communication occurs between anonymous consumers, therefore; the traditional communication theory may not be able to explain eWOM communication. It’s essential for us to adjust the original theory to explain EWOM communication better. Secondly, the eWOM communication process is very complicated, appears to be a messy scene, it is difficult to use with a clear picture to describe the whole scene, to determine the information flow and to determine who influence who. Third, in the traditional word of mouth communication process, the opinion leaders play an important role. But we are not sure whether there are opinion leaders in EWOM communication process. So, it’s important to determine whether they are opinion leaders in virtual community and how to find them.In order to solve above problems, the research focus on studying how EWOM influence consumer’s purchase behavior. In this study, we use knowledge of communication, psychology, computer science and consumer behavior, as well as social exchange theory, trust theory, attribution theory to fully explain how EWOM impact the consumer’s purchase behavior.The study consists of three parts. Based on literature review and qualitative research, we construct a concept model to explain how EWOM influence consumer’s purchase behavior, in which the independent variables are the sender’s characteristic, the website characteristic and the receiver characteristic, the dependent viable is the impact of eWOM on purchase behavior, and the mediating variable is the receiver’s trust in eWOM, including cognitive trust and affective trust.This study collects data through questionnaires, and adopts Visual plus 1.04 and SPSS 17.0 for data analysis. Through empirical study, we find that the sender’s expertise, homogeneity, tie strength and website trustworthiness have t positive effect on eWOM’s impact on consumer, which is mediated by trust. The receiver’s expertise not only has positive effect on eWOM effect, but also plays as a moderator between the sender’s characteristics, the website trustworthiness and the receiver’s trust in eWOM. When the receiver expertise is high, his trust in eWOM comes from the sender’s expertise, while when the receiver expertise is low; he tends to use website trustworthiness as important clue for trust formation.In the second part, we use social network analysis method to study how the network structures of virtual community influence the eWOM communication. We get data of three typical consumption virtual communities by data capture programmer and we adopt Ucinet 6.0 and Netdraw to make data analysis. By data analysis, we get conclusion as follows.The consumption related virtual communities are loose and decentralized network, as well as scale free network. In the virtual community, most members have no influence, while a few members play a very important role, which we defined as opinion leaders. Through cluster analysis, we identified who are opinion leaders. Opinion leaders are in a central location of a virtual community. They are important in EWOM communication and their influence comes from their expertise, innovation and high involvement in special product. To some extent, the influence of virtual communities from the influence of opinion leaders and opinion leaders is an important asset of virtual community.Finally, suggestion for virtual community development and enterprise eWOM marketing are put forward.更多还原